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Subject: This Month in Mongolian Studies - October 2013

This Month in Mongolian Studies –
October 2013

This is a monthly listing of selected academic activities and
resources
related to Mongolia. This list is based on information
the ACMS has
received and is presented as a service to its members. If you
would like to
submit information to be included in next month's issue please
contact the ACMS at info@mongoliacenter.org and/or
the editor, Marissa Smith, at msmith@mongoliacenter.org.

On the Move-ACMS Ulaanbaatar office
Relocating to the Natsagdorj Library

Throughout the
summer, the ACMS has been looking for a new permanent home.
After nearly 10 years, we have made arrangements with the
location that was intended to be the original home of the
ACMS. We look forward to working closely with the Natsagdorj
Library staff and our friends at the American Corner to bring
new heights to the ACMS involvement in Mongolian studies.

ACMS Sponsored
Programs and Events

Books for
Asia Partnership Launch Event – ACMS and the Asia
Foundation – October 9th
The ACMS is proud to announce they will be managing the
Books for Asia program in Mongolia on behalf of the Asia
Foundation. The ACMS and the Asia Foundation announced the
launch of the program delivery partnership at a gala event
on October 9th at the National Museum of Mongolia.

Scholar's
Corner

The
Scholars Corner is an informal gathering aimed at providing
an opportunity for visiting academics, resident scholars and
interested individuals to meet, discuss their research and
exchange ideas.

October
17th Scholars Corner – Prof. Orna Tsultem
This was an opportunity to meet and discuss Mongolian
spirituality with Dr. Orna Tsultem, Lecturer at the UC
Berkeley Department of Art History, and visiting Professor
at National University of Mongolia and a specialist of
Mongolian Religious Art and Spirituality.

Call
for Papers, Conferences, Workshops, and other Academic
Programs

Call for
Articles: The Journal of the Anthropology of the
Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia (ACME) is
a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the anthropological
studies of all societies and cultures in the Middle East and
Central Eurasia. Its scope is to publish original research
by social scientists not only in the area of anthropology
but also in sociology, folklore, religion, material culture
and related social sciences. It includes all areas of modern
and contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia (Russia,
the Caucasus, Central Asia, China) including topics on
minority groups and religious themes. The journal also will
review monographic studies, reference works, results of
conferences, and international workshops. ACME also
publishes review essays, reviews of books and multimedia
products (including music, films, and web sites) relevant to
the main aims of the journal. All submissions for articles
are peer-reviewed. ACME is published with the financial
support and collaboration of GroupeSocietes, Religions,
Laicites, Centre National de la RechercheScientifique
(CNRS), France. For general inquiries and Instructions for
Authors, please visit: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/anthropologyiran/acme/contact/.

Call for Articles: Asian Literature and Translation
(ALT) is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal
established by the Centre for the History of Religion in
Asia (CHRA), Cardiff University. The main objective of the
journal is to publish research papers, translations, and
reviews in the field of Asian religious literature
(construed in the widest sense) in a form that makes them
quickly and easily accessible to the international academic
community, to professionals in related fields, such as
theatre and storytelling, and to the general public. The
scope of the journal covers the cultural, historical, and
religious literature of South, Southeast, East and Central
Asia in the relevant languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Pali,
Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, et al.). We particularly welcome
literary translations, including extracts from longer works
in progress, manuscript reports and commentarial material,
new adaptations of classic texts, archive stories and debate
pieces, and the discussion of new approaches to translation.
Book and performance reviews, including visual material, and
letters to the editor, including responses to published
material, are also solicited. Contributions are welcome on
a wide range of topics in the research area as defined
above. For further information see: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/share/research/centres/chra/whatwedo/journal-asian-lit-and-translation.html.

Research Fellowships, Scholarships
and Grants

The
Institute of East Asian Studies has established a new
School of Advanced Studies on Innovation in East Asia funded
by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Organized in six Junior Research Groups the School will
focus on innovations in East Asia in two areas: New forms of
mobility (e-mobility) and urbanization. Inter alia the
School aims to narrow the gap between disciplines and
regional studies by strengthening the application of cutting
edge theoretical and methodological approaches to research
in area studies. Each junior research group consists of two
doctoral researchers and is led by a post-doctoral scholar.
The School is looking for 12 doctoral researchers with a
background in the social and economic sciences, in
engineering/mobility studies or urban development studies
who aim at a doctoral degree. For details of the School and
the different research foci of the research program cf.
www.in-east.de/school. Applications are invited from
candidates with a strong MA degree (or equivalent), good
knowledge in theories and methods of their respective
discipline and a proven interest in East Asia as well as in
transdisciplinary cooperation; good knowledge of an East
Asian language and German is an advantage. A command of
English is a prerequisite. The School offers successful
applicants a highly dynamic research environment, a
structured PhD program with excellent supervision and
guidance. The duration of the PhD projects is three years.
Applications (incl. CV, copy of degrees incl. transcript of
grades, a research proposal of 3-5 pages) are to be
submitted in one electronic file to the director of the
School Prof. M. Taube (markus.taube@uni-due.de) by Sept. 15,
2013. In addition a letter of recommendation from a scholar
able to assess your scholarly potential must be sent
directly to Prof. Taube, IN-EAST, University of
Duisburg-Essen, 47048 Duisburg, Germany.

The
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announces
a new initiative supporting research and teaching in
Buddhist studies. ACLS will offer an articulated set of
fellowship and grant competitions that will expand the
understanding and interpretation of Buddhist thought in
scholarship and society, strengthen international networks
of Buddhist studies, and increase the visibility of
innovative currents in those studies. These are global
competitions. There are no restrictions as to the location
of work proposed or the citizenship of applicants.
Applications must be submitted through the ACLS Online
FellowshipApplication system (OFA). Sample applications and
a link to OFA will be available in July 2013. Visit: http://www.acls.org/programs/buddhist-studies/

Position Openings

Faculty
Position: The Departments of Religion and East Asian
Languages and Cultures at Columbia University invite
applications for a joint appointment to the Sheng Yen Chair
in Chinese Buddhism, at the level of tenure-track assistant
professor or tenure-track associate professor. Area of
research and teaching specialization is open, although
demonstrated interest in interdisciplinary research and
teaching is necessary. Ph.D. required by the time of
appointment. Candidates will be expected to sustain an
active research and publication agenda and teach in
undergraduate and graduate programs.Candidates are required
to submit a cover letter, CV, statement of teaching and
research, dissertation abstract, three reference letters,
writing sample, and samples of syllabi. Review of
applications will begin October 1, 2013 and continue until
position is filled. Preliminary interviews will be conducted
at the AAR annual meeting in Baltimore in November. For more
information and to apply for the position, please use the
following URL:https://academicjobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=58085

Resources

TheDukhaEthnoarchaeological
Project. The primary goal of the
DukhaEthnoarchaeological Project is the development of
spatial theory of human behavior for application to
archaeological problems. Visit the website at:https://sites.google.com/site/dukhaethnoarch/.

Asian Politics and History Association. Asian
Politics and History Association is a non-political,
non-profit academic society organized by scholars of Asian
studies. Established in 2011 in Hong Kong, APHA currently
has members from Asian-Pacific, European and North American
countries. APHA supports the Journal of Asian Politics
&History, an academic journal published twice a year
beginning in October 2012. Visit the website at:http://www.aphahk.org.

Juniper: Online Database for Mongolian and Siberian
Studies. This new French scientific tool is created
at the initiative of the Centre for Mongolian and Siberian
EPHE. It aims to bring together texts (native), images and
multimedia on the peoples of Mongolia and Siberia. Several
galleries of images are presented, including collections of
old prints and a new series of old photographs of the Tuvan
National Museum. Sheets populations gather essential
information and links to documents relating to the peoples
of Northern Asia. Subject files (kinship, Personalia,
shamanism and soon others) allow you to browse the data
according to thematic itineraries. The bibliography
contains references to books and articles, some of which
have been digitized and can be downloaded for researchers.
Visit: www.base-juniper.org.

Searchable Ornithological Research Archive (SORA).
Recently the University of New Mexico Library officially
announced the launch of the new, upgraded Searchable
Ornithological Research Archive (SORA). The ornithological
community is once again indebted to the UNM library for
investing in the open access distribution of our historical
ornithological literature. SORA has been moved to a new
platform that will allow the resource to grow and expand
over time. Many of the SORA journal titles have been updated
with additional articles, and a new ornithological title has
been added to the site. SORA now offers a number of new
features for users and provides tools for journal publishers
to update the SORA repository directly, with little or no
technical support. All of these improvements have been
needed for some time, and the UNM Libraries SORA team
appreciates your collective patience; it has taken over a
year to convert the entire SORA article holdings and prepare
the new site for production. A number of ongoing
improvements are still in the works for 2013, and as with
any major system upgrade, there are a countless number of
small details that still require attention. The new URL to
the site is http://sora.unm.edu.

The Mongolist is a website dedicated to sharing
knowledge about Mongolian politics, business, and society.
The website is an ever growing resource built on data and
information collected on the Internet and in Mongolia. The
aim of this website is to make understanding the complexity
of the rapid social and economic change occurring in
Mongolia not only accessible but also rewarding. The
underlying principle guiding the development of all content
on this website is evidence based investigation. Whenever
possible, opinion, conjecture, and pure guesswork are
replaced with facts, data, and extrapolation. And, when this
is not possible, opinion, conjecture, and pure guesswork are
advertised as such. Visit: http://www.themongolist.com/

Education About Asia (EAA) has become an essential
resource for teachers dealing with Asian themes or topics;
both in the broad trans-continental and regional contexts.
Conceived as a publication for K-12 faculty, it has in fact
proved to be extremely helpful for higher education faculty
seeking insights on many subjects. The Asian Studies
outreach activities of many colleges and universities have
greatly benefited from EAA materials. Register (for free)
to access approximately 900 articles from all thirty-seven
back issues from 1996-2008:
http://www.asian-studies.org/EAA/index.htm and subscribe to
the Print Edition at https://www.asian-studies.org/EAA-Subscriptions.htm.

Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center:
Indiana University’s IAUNRC has updated its website to
include not only its regular newsletters but podcasts,
lecture videos, teaching resources and more:http://www.iu.edu/~iaunrc/.

Mongolia Focus (formerly “Mongolia Today”): “This
blog is an attempt by three avid Mongolia watchers to share
their observations about current developments in Mongolia.”
By Julian Dierkes and Dalaibulanii Byambajav, social
scientists at the University of British Columbia, this blog
mostly follows Mongolian politics and the mining sector.
Visit: http://blogs.ubc.ca/mongolia/.

News
and Events

ACMS
Takes over the Books for Asia Program in Mongolia:
One of The Asia Foundation’s best known and most beloved
programs, Books for Asia is the leading provider of donated
information resources in the region. Books for Asia is
committed to connecting Mongolian institutions with
high-quality material from some of the world’s best
information resources. When the Books for Asia Mongolia
first started in 1990, they responded to the critical need
for English-language books by donating publications that
were not yet available in the country. Since then, the
program has provided more than half a million books, donated
by leading U.S. publishers, to a wide variety of Mongolian
institutions in Mongolia’s most far-flung corners.

Monthly
Biobeers Talk: First Thursday of the month, Sweet Cafe
(located behind the Information and Technological National
Park and next to the Admon Printing Company, west of
Internom Bookstore Building). People are requested to arrive
after 6pm, in time for the talk to start at 6.30. Biobeers
is a monthly gathering of government and NGO staff,
biologists, researchers, and other professionals interested
in conservation. Each month, Biobeers sponsors a half-hour
presentation on a topic relevant to Mongolian conservation,
followed by an informal gathering to discuss activities and
issues of interest. Biobeers is an opportunity to find out
what is happening in the field of conservation in Mongolia,
talk informally to other researchers and peers in your
field, and share information about issues critical to the
environment and people of Mongolia. Biobeers is organised by
the Zoological Society of London's Steppe Forward Programme
and sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Join the
Yahoo! Group Mongolbioweb for announcements.

Recent Publications

In
Pursuit of Early Mammals (Life of the Past), (ZofiaKielan-Jaworowska).
In Pursuit of Early Mammals presents the history of the
mammals that lived during the Mesozoic era, the time when
dinosaurs ruled the Earth, and describes their origins,
anatomy, systematics, paleobiology, and distribution. It
also tells the story of the author, a world-renowned
specialist on these animals, and the other prominent
paleontologists who have studied them.
ZofiaKielan-Jaworowska was the first woman to lead
large-scale paleontological expeditions, including eight to
the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, which brought back important
collections of dinosaur, early mammal, and other fossils.
She shares the difficulties and pleasures encountered in
finding rare fossils and describes the changing views on
early mammals made possible by thesediscoveries.Between 1963
and 1971, Kielan-Jaworowska organized eight paleontological
expeditions to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. These
expeditions assembled an impressive collection of dinosaurs
and Cretaceous mammals. Her research has focused on the
study of the detailed structure of the brain and musculature
of early mammals and their evolutionary relationships.

A Monastery in Time: The Making of Mongolian Buddhism,
by Caroline Humphrey and Hurelbaatar Ujeed. (University
of Chicago Press). A Monastery in Time is the first book to
describe the life of a Mongolian Buddhist monastery—the
Mergen Monastery in Inner Mongolia—from inside its walls.
From the Qing occupation of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries through the Cultural Revolution, Caroline Humphrey
and HürelbaatarUjeed tell a story of religious formation,
suppression, and survival over a history that spans three
centuries.Often overlooked in Buddhist studies, Mongolian
Buddhism is an impressively self-sustaining tradition whose
founding lama, the Third MergenGegen, transformed Tibetan
Buddhism into an authentic counterpart using the Mongolian
language. Drawing on fifteen years of fieldwork, Humphrey
and Ujeed show how lamas have struggled to keep
MergenGegen’s vision alive through tremendous political
upheaval, and how such upheaval has inextricably fastened
politics to religion for many of today’s practicing monks.
Exploring the various ways Mongolian Buddhists have
attempted to link the past, present, and future, Humphrey
and Ujeed offer a compelling study of the interplay between
the individual and the state, tradition and history.

Fossil Mammals of Asia: Neogene Biostratigraphy and
Chronology, by Xiaoming Wang, Lawrence J. Flynn,
Mikael Fortelius.(Columbia University Press). Fossil
Mammals of Asia, edited by and with contributions from
world-renowned scholars, is the first major work devoted to
the late Cenozoic (Neogene) mammalian biostratigraphy and
geochronology of Asia. This volume employs cutting-edge
biostratigraphic and geochemical dating methods to map the
emergence of mammals across the continent. Written by
specialists working in a variety of Asian regions, it uses
data from many basins with spectacular fossil records to
establish a groundbreaking geochronological framework for
the evolution of land mammals.Asia's violent tectonic
history has resulted in some of the world's most varied
topography, and its high mountain ranges and intense monsoon
climates have spawned widely diverse environments over time.
These geologic conditions profoundly influenced the
evolution of Asian mammals and their migration into Europe,
Africa, and North America. Focusing on amazing new fossil
finds that have redefined Asia's role in mammalian
evolution, this volume synthesizes information from a range
of field studies on Asian mammals and biostratigraphy,
helping to trace the histories and movements of extinct and
extant mammals from various major groups and all northern
continents, and providing geologists with a richer
understanding of a variety of Asian terrains.

LIVE FROM UB: A Documentary on Modern Mongolian Rock,
by Lauren Knapp (Fulbright-mtvU Fellow 2012).
post-production is currently underway Lauren Knapp's
documentary film LIVE FROM UB. She spent ten months in
Mongolia researching the rock music scene, its history, and
how the new generation of musicians is fusing traditional
music and themes with modern styles to create something that
is unique to both their generation and Mongolia. Lauren was
first interested to learn how the first generation of
Mongolians to grow up in a democracy was expressing
themselves through music. She found that the trajectory of
Mongolian rock through, emulates the path Mongolia has taken
as a nation over the past three decades. You can read more
about the film, her research, and watch exclusive videos on
the film website (www.livefromub.com).

Does Everyone Want Democracy? : Insights from
Mongolia, by Paula Sabloff. (Left Coast Press).
Do all people desire democracy? For at least a century, the
idea that democracy is a universal good has been an article
of faith for American policy makers. Paula Sabloff
challenges this conventional wisdom about who wants
democracy and why. Arguing that certain universal human
aspirations exist, she shows how local realities are highly
particularistic and explains that culture, history, and
values are critical to the study of political systems. Her
fascinating study of Mongolia—feudal until it became the
first country to follow Russia into communism and now
struggling with post-socialist democratization—is a model
for investigating how everyday people around the world
actually think about and implement democracy on their own
terms.

A History of Land Use in Mongolia: The Thirteenth
Century to the Present, by Elizabeth Endicott (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2012). A History of Land Use in Mongolia
examines conceptual and practical issues of land use during
eight centuries of Mongolian history. The book analyzes how
Mongolia's pastoral nomadic herding population historically
has dealt with secular and religious forms of authority in
the ongoing struggle for control over pastureland and water
resources. The author's findings derive from a number of
field trips to the Mongolian countryside as well as a
diverse array of written sources including Russian
geographic treatises, historical texts, Mongolian press
accounts, and Western economic analyses of the present day
herding sector.

A Kazakh Teacher's Story: Surviving the Silent Steppe,
by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov. (Stacey International,
2013). This book begins where 'The Silent Steppe' left off.
It is early 1945, and the author, Mukhamet, still
recuperating from serious war injuries, has traveled
thousands of kilometers back to his home village in the
eastern Kazakh steppe. As he encounters scenes of desperate
poverty, he quickly realizes the immense sacrifices made by
local people, and particularly women, while the able-bodied
men were away fighting. Mukhamet endeavors to pick up the
pieces of his pre-war life, working hard to support his
extended family, marrying, continuing his education, and
eventually embarking on a life in teaching dedicated to
giving young people the best education possible. Through his
insightful portraits of local party bosses, district
officials and bureaucrats, and tales of the vicissitudes of
daily life, a broader, more personal picture emerges of life
under Stalin, and of his pervading shadow decades on. The
author's moral integrity, stoicism and profound respect for
the struggles of the common people stand out in this memoir
of a life of self-effacing dedication.

Energy Access, Poverty, and Development: The
Governance of Small-Scale Renewable Energy in Developing
Asia (Ashgate Studies in Environmental Policy
and Practice) by Benjamin K. Sovacool and Ira Martina
Drupady. (Ashgate Pub Co, 2012). This book showcases how
small-scale renewable energy technologies such as solar
panels, cook stoves, biogas digesters, microhydro units, and
wind turbines are helping Asia respond to a daunting set of
energy governance challenges. Using extensive original
research this book offers a compendium of the most
interesting renewable energy case studies over the last ten
years from one of the most diverse regions in the world.
Through an in-depth exploration of case studies in
Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka, the
authors highlight the applicability of different approaches
and technologies and illuminates how household and
commercial innovations occur (or fail to occur) within
particular energy governance regimes. It also, uniquely,
explores successful case studies alongside failures or
"worst practice" examples that are often just as revealing
as those that met their targets. Based on these successes
and failures, the book presents twelve salient lessons for
policymakers and practitioners wishing to expand energy
access and raise standards of living in some of the world's
poorest communities. It also develops an innovative
framework consisting of 42 distinct factors that explain why
some energy development interventions accomplish all of
their goals while others languish to achieve any.

The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe
Warriors (Complete Illustrated History 1) by
Christoph Baumer. (I. B. Tauris, 2012). The epic plains and
arid deserts of Central Asia have witnessed some of the
greatest migrations, as well as many of the most
transformative developments, in the history of civilization.
ChristophBaumer's ambitious four-volume treatment of the
region charts the 3000-year drama of Scythians and
Sarmatians; Soviets and transcontinental Silk Roads; trade
routes and the transmission of ideas across the steppes; and
the breathless and brutal conquests of Alexander the Great
and Chinghis Khan. Masterfully interweaving the stories of
individuals and peoples, the author's engaging prose is
richly augmented throughout by color photographs taken on
his own travels. For all the complexity of the history, Dr.
Baumer, a noted authority on Central Asia, never loses sight
of the sweeping grandeur of its overall setting. Volume 1
focuses on the geography of the area now occupied by
present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan, western and
central Mongolia and parts of southern Russia and northern
China. Discussing the changing climates of the Palaeolithic,
Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages, the author explores
subjects as diverse as glacial retreat; the invention of the
wheel; the legendary Cimmerians and Amazons; Hellenism and
Zoroastrianism; and the Oxus Treasure. Future volumes will
explore the later historical periods of the region.

The Short Essays of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, by
Wang Hong and Zhang Shunsheng. (Paths International
Ltd., 2013). The late Ming Dynasty (1572-1644) and the
early Qing Dynasty (1644-1722) saw the true splendour of
short essays in China. No other period in the history of
short essays in ancient China can match them in the quality
and number of works, literary schools, or the variety of
styles. Compared with those written before or after, the
short essays in these periods were richer in the choice of
topics, and freer in form, focusing not only on real social
life, but also on worldly experience and life's little
delights. They are a rich and vital part of China's literary
and cultural heritage. The 127 short essays in this
wonderful book are considered to be the very best examples
from an era of China's history that's synonymous with
beautifully crafted short essays. 82 essays are from the
Ming Dynasty and 45 essays are from the Qing Dynasty,
written by more than a hundred different Chinese authors
from both dynasties. These are arranged in the order of the
authors' birth dates and tenderly translated into English by
leading Chinese translators Wang Hong and Zhang Shunsheng,
who have faithfully represented the styles and literary
achievements made by the featured essayists. It's a
wonderful book that will delight fans of classic Chinese
short essays, as well as providing the perfect introduction
to readers new to the genre.

This is an online snapshot of a newsletter created by the owner of acms_enewsletter (American Center for Mongolian Studies, 642 Williams Hall, 255 S. 36th St, 19104 Philadelphia, United States) and sent via GetResponse on 2013-10-23. Report abuse